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This month, The Edge of the Forest interviews debut novelist, Greg Fishbone, author of
The Penguins of Doom: From the Desk of Septina Nash. According to the bio on his
website, Greg is a "lawyer by day and writer by night, Greg fights a never-ending battle for truth, justice, and fun. He
and his wife live in the Boston area with two cats of varying temperament." In addition to author and lawyer, Greg can
claim the title of webmaster for the New England SCBWI and the President (and co-founder) of the Class of 2k7, a joint
marketing initiative for debut novelists with books out this year.
The Penguins of Doom is a contemporary humorous fantasy about a girl named Septina Nash and her quest to find her
missing triplet-sister, Sexta. With her brother Quinn by her side, Septina embarks on a letter-writing campaign to get her
out of math and gym classes, explain her absences and attitude towards various authority figures, and seek help from the local
police (and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police) in finding her missing sister. Along the way, she encounters the Penguins
of Doom, a crazed school counselor, and a mad scientist, and engages in some match-making between her math teacher and some
guys in the waste disposal business. Oh, and she appears in a few music videos, too.
The Edge of the Forest: The Penguins of Doom: From the Desk of Septina Nash is your first published novel,
featuring a main character named Septina Nash. Is it true that you actually wrote about Septina's father, Sal, first? Can
you tell us a bit about that?
Greg: I came up with Sal as part of a story I wrote for a superhero parody list called Superguy. Sal was a
garbageman who got caught up in in an improbable series of events and ended up as the absolute and uncontested ruler of the
world. In the end, he gave it all up for the love of a good woman. So now they're married with seven children, and this is
their story!
I've always thought that if you want fun and interesting kid characters, you need to give them fun and interesting parents.
Since I already knew so much about Sal and Viyayai Nash, it was a whole lot easier to write about their offspring.
The Edge of the Forest:The Penguins of Doom is told from Septina's perspective—specifically, through a
collection of notes and letters she sends to various people ranging from her parents to her teachers to her arch enemy, the
mad scientist Doctor Fignizzi. How hard was it to convey a complete story, including other people's points of view, when
the only "correspondence" in the book was from Septina's perspective?
Greg: I was worried for a while that an all-Septina format wouldn't work, but I couldn't find any other way to
tell this story. Believe me, I tried! Thankfully, the letter-writing fits with Septina's personality
and she's not about to stop just because nobody's writing back to her.
It also helped that I had the plot mapped out in my brain beforehand, so I could write the letters in any order I wanted. I
had fun with it, and I hope that comes through.
The Edge of the Forest: The Penguins of Doom includes a host of supporting characters, including a garbage
man, triplet-siblings, an Olympic freestyle skateboarding champion, a gym teacher, some penguins, a school principal, a
math teacher, some math-teacher parents, a school counselor, the police, a mad scientist, and the Mounties. Which of these
characters did you know about at the start of your writing, and which came along later? (And how did they come along,
anyhow?)
Greg: Before I started writing, I knew that Sal and Viyayai would have seven children, that the last three would be triplets, and
that the seventh child would be a purple-haired skateboarder with magic numbers. The penguins appeared on the first page of
the first draft, and Doctor Fignizzi was always in the picture. I just don't remember where those Mounties came from.
The Edge of the Forest: A quick follow-up question, if I may, about Septina's magic numbers, three and seven. I've
been supposing three is because she's a triplet, and seven because she's the seventh child (of a seventh child). Septina is
able to break everything in life down to equations involving threes and sevens, sometimes with disastrous results (because
when Septina does math, odd things happen). Is her power a form of synethesia? Or is it magic? Or both?
Greg: I never thought of Septina's ability as a kind of synesthesia but that might be part of it—perceiving the
world in terms of numbers and numerical patterns. The other part would be manipulating those numbers in a way that has an
effect on the physical world. As Mrs. Nash says, Septina shouldn't be studying mathematics—mathematics should be
studying her! She might eventually learn to control her powers a little better...or maybe not.
The Edge of the Forest: The book includes pen & ink drawings on nearly every page. Were the drawings always part of
the story (in your mind) or did they come later?
Greg: Septina is the kind of person who draws compulsively—on her school papers, correspondence, library books,
or whatever else is around. While I was writing the letters, I drew some of her pictures as well to help me get into the
proper mindset. Method writing, I guess. I
sent the the pictures along with the manuscript as a guide for a real illustrator, but the publisher loved my style and now
I'm a published illustrator. Who would have imagined!
I also used to make doodles on my school papers—usually tanks, spaceships, and robots. I got in big-time trouble for
it once, and my parents were called in to the school. My seventh-grade science
teacher claimed that "in her professional experience" drawings such as mine could only have been made under the influence
of LSD. I don't know whether I should have taken that as flattering or insulting.
The Edge of the Forest: I've been reading your blog for quite a while now, and have reached the following
independent conclusion: You are a marketing wizard.
Greg: Thanks for saying so.
a. Not only do you have your own author's website, gfishbone.com, but
Septina also has her own website, SeptinaNash.com, which includes a blog by
Septina as well as the Podcasts of Dread. Why did you set up a separate site
for Septina?
Because she wanted one? I think every book character should have a website. I'm
surprised that they don't.
b. In addition, you have a MySpace, www.myspace.com/tem2, and so do
the Penguins of Doom, www.myspace.com/septina. But wait—there's
more! There are quite a number of separate Penguin Myspace friends. How does
it feel to know that the Penguins of Doom have more friends than you on
MySpace?
It's humbling, but everybody loves penguins.
c. Not only did you do a lot of online buzz-building, but you were also one of
the people behind the creation of the Class of 2k7, a marketing collective for
debut authors with first novels out in 2007. How did you come up with that idea,
and how has it worked for you and the other classmembers, as far as building buzz?
The idea for the Class of 2k7 came when I was feeling overwhelmed by
all the marketing and publicity books and websites I was trying to absorb. I
figured that other first-time authors were probably going through the same thing,
and wouldn't it be great if we could get together and pool ideas and resources?
We've been able to build a lot of buzz as a group and hopefully that's helped
us all out individually. The group has also evolved into a support network,
sounding board, and cheerleading squad. That part by itself has been better
than anything I ever expected.
The Edge of the Forest: What do you have planned as an actual book launch?
Greg: I had such elaborate plans...but do you know how hard it is to rent a flock of penguins?
The Edge of the Forest: What's next?
The Edge of the Forest: Right now, I'm living in the moment and enjoying the launch of this book. The next
challenge for myself will be to write something even better. I hope I can.
The Edge of the Forest: Speed round:
Cheese or chocolate? Milk chocolate. With almonds.
Coffee or tea? Decaf coffee. With hazelnut.
Cats or dogs? Short-haired domestic cats. With pistachio. :D
Favorite color? Green.
Favorite snack food? Fiery Habanero Doritos.
Favorite ice cream? Vanilla. Don't let anyone tell you that vanilla is plain or boring—if it's
made from real ingredients instead of artificial flavorings, a good vanilla ice cream can't be beat.
Water or soda? Carbonated water.
What's in your CD player/on iTunes right now? The audiobook version of Susan
Cooper's The Dark is Rising.
What's the last movie you memorized lines from? Pride and Prejudice but that
was a special case—if you drag me to a chick-flick, be prepared to have me ridicule the dialogue.
_______________________________________________
Greg R. Fishbone - gfishbone.com
* Author: The Penguins of Doom - SeptinaNash.com
* President: Class of 2k7 - Class of 2k7
* ARA: New England SCBWI - http://nescbwi.org
_______________________________________________
The Penguins of Doom (From the Desk of Septina Nash). Blooming Tree Press, 2007.
ISBN: 1-9338-3103-0.(Out October 2007.)
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